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4chan's Pony Board
4chan's Pony Board, (or simply /mlp/) is the one and only board on 4chan that allows pony-related discussion. Launched on February 17, 2012, the board was initially opened by demand to loosen the tensions between pony posters on both /co/ and /b/ and give them both a home. As the same as the rest of site ediquette, users tend to stay true to their anonymity to counter vanity. The board from its inception ongoing for a half a year included the migrated MLPG and a branching of its long-time counterpart, /b/read. Later in the board's lifetime sought the introduction of multiple recurrring generals surrounded by greentext stories, often clop, and one /tg/ thread that was asked to migrate to /mlp/ in compliance to newly founded rule 15. Despite the board's SFW status, the board's history is notorious for its lack of rule enforcement. Countless clop threads in the past have been created and were hardly ever intercepted by mods. By the majority of its own users, /mlp/ is an outlet to escape the dogmatic and saccharined innocent aspects of the fandom where they can contribute and communicate without interruption. However, they do have a history of investigations the suspicious and shady backdoor drama in the fandom, such as one with the imploded Las Pegasus Unicon. Currently, /mlp/ receives approximately 22-25,000 posts per day, making it by far the most active single board than any imageboard related activity in the fandom. Board History The creation of the board was met with mixed reactons and cautious skepticism upon the most populous pony related userbases of the site. Users from other sites began to try it out on that night, however, by the end of its first week, it had already stabilized into a melting pot of both /co/ and /b/. The next week followed the infamous "Derpygate" incident, which was met with widespread panic and chaos. By the beginning of March, there were about 4 generals. It should also be important to note that very little content would be moderated on this board, as the board did not get its first janitor until the summer. That is to say with major exception of one largely public ban evader known as , who would derail countless threads, fearing that they would someday corrupt Rainbow Dash, or "his daughter". In late March, a mod publicly announced that he would be considered "ban-on-sight". This would also occur on the same week as the Bronycon leaks that would make Purple Tinker relevant on the board. Up towards the end of Season 2 grew to be amongst the most active nights of the board. Surprisingly enough, one create-an-OC thread had ample contribution to make it through the flood. One thread was all that was necessary to make "Tracy", the "Element of Unoriginality" into a poster pony of /mlp/. Tracy, the sky blue-mane cyan earth pony with a cutie mark of Nicholas Cage became the most widely known OC of the board. The original thread, despite the flood and the short life span of /mlp/ threads, stayed alive for over a week. First Summer on /mlp/ Following May induced more Purple Tinker drama, and surely there was a lot of it. To keep things short here, she sent a complaint letter to Hasbro, asking them to shut down Canterlot Gardens and received plentiful backlash for it. These grudges were almost entirely at a personal level and primarily held no relevance for Hasbro to respond. Later that month came the shock in response to the Lyra Plushie made by Hoppip. It is often the case to say that the content quality on 4chan degrades over the summer, primarily by what are called "summerfags". Despite the summer and the hiatus, this summer of /mlp/ 2012 was the Golden Age of the board. There were few Generals, no janitor, and only a few cross-posters from /b/. Threads would occasionally fall off-topic, yet not far enough to be irrelevant to the board. And such discussion of topics included the spaghetti intensive, long anticipated, somewhat drama-inducing Bronycon 2012, which included the appearance of Lauren Faust herself. The night of the convention, from /mlp/ and MLPG's perspective, was the "most lax night on the board". The drama that stemmed off from the con was majorly induced by MictheMicrophone, one of the commonly ascribed "brony musicians" whom was widely criticized for his assertions regarding "natural talent" and other acts taht came off as showboating and largely uncalled for. One former user from the site whom was the founder of FiMfiction, knighty, even dropped in a few threads himself. He later went off to further vent on the front page of his site in response to Mic. Yelling at Cats, another "brony musician," would later promise the /mlp/ regulars that he would call out Mic at Everfree Northwest one month later. A few days later, /mlp/ joined in on the first Interchan Spaghetti Bowl - A TF2 tournament where users play for their home board. /mlp/ went home and celebrated their overpowering victory. Howard Stern on bronies On July 17, radio personality Howard Stern would comment and harshly poke fun at bronies from Bronycon enough that even the nor/mlp/eople of 4chan found revolting. Though it is a laughing matter now, one mod decided to join in on the drama and post the segment as a sticky on the front page. August 9 came one of the more unintentional raids - a kid whom asked for the nor/mlp/eople to post "some nasty rule 34 pictures." The kid was enraged when someone stumbled upon his facebook, which they found hilarious, and later provoked a rule 34 dump on his facebook page instead. By late August came the concluding Everfree Northwest, and Yelling At Cats was nowhere in sight. He later returned to /mlp/ and tried explaining to everyone that he was kicked off stage for unrightful reasons before he could have a chance to call out Mic on stage. One musician by the name F3nning, infuriated by these false claims basically went all-out on him and announced Cats' banning from the con on his Tumblr page. The nor/mlp/eople were quick to catch wind to this and stopped bandwagoning the whole music scene. Janitor Intervention Around the beginning of September, it was about this time of which activity that resembled one of a janitor started emerging on /mlp/. There would come little thread in the morning, but nighttime threads would always be subject to selective pruning. One of the larger victims included Pony /b/read, which after a mass banning, voted to take their activity to MLPchan where they would feel more welcome. Thus, the migration removed the last standing subgroup that was still associated with /b/. This is also about the time of which Tulpa Threads redeemed their popularity again following this thread. Though the Tulpa threads have a long spanning history, much of the more relevant and on-topic threads were created at its first month on /mlp/, including this nightmare-inducing thread. Of course, nowhere as dark and edgy, yet amusing as the redeemed Tracy character, whom reformed popularity after one drawfag picked up the idea and drew countless drawings of her. However, Tracy was not the only OC to be popularized that month. It would also be about this time that the Milkmare of Trottingham would be popularized enough to achieve "general" status. Hasbro Controversy Fast-forward to January - one of the less favorable months of the fandom. Friendship is Witchcraft would be removed from Youtube, then following a series of rumors, would end the month with the horrific discovery of Twilight becoming an Alicorn. out of all communities to react, /mlp/, by far, had the most chaotic response. Generals fell off the board, rumors speculating that moot would delete the board that night, mod intervention concluded one of the most havoc induced months of the board. And the icing of the cake was the mere fact that moot came in himself, put on the music that was played on /b/ day, then changed the title of the board to "WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW?" February wasn't looking much brighter, beginning with the introduction of Equestria Girls that, out of all people, was initially leaked by Purple Tinker out of aggravation with Hasbro, then was confirmed in a magazine found in a convention. All these changes made everyone question whether or not Hasbro had favorable agendas with regards to the show. But it all got worse when Fighting is Magic, after two years of development and near completion of a game, were given a Cease and Desist letter that forced them to shut down. Though the month concluded well at the creation of this thread that gave birth to Princess Erroria. Though by the end of the month began the first weeks of the Season 3-4 Hiatus, the longest one yet. Lauren Faust visits /mlp/ Fast forward again to May - this is the month where, out of all people to visit, came Lauren Faust herself. She received many heartwarming comments from everyone, with her departure concluding with a gigantic "Thank you" letter. Though unfortunately, the visit followed with unwanted visitors from behind, which may or may not have led to the major rule crackdown following next month. Scruffygate June was a month of panic, as on the 2nd of the month, janitors went about mass deletions and provoked a series of harsh bannings to people whom didn't do much harm there. For the first few days, most of them tried to fend for themselves, but others eventually gave up and moved to other places where moderation wouldn't be so hostile. Soon enough, we saw MLPchan's /anon/ board jumpstarted by the new traffic that made it just as active as their /oat/ and /chat/ board. MLPchan admin, Anonthony (!!Applejack) tried helping restore /mlp/ by reasoning with moot, though eventually, moot became fed up with the emails and ordered a mod to write a sticky concerning the situation. The following sticky that was posted that night came off as condescending and did nothing but only advocated a shitstorm of rule 34 being posted on /mlp/ in protest to this enforcement. Incidentally, this sticky would become the origin of the unemployment jokes. Moderation At its beginning, there was practically no moderation. Many users there enjoyed the freedom, yet others believed that the board could not go alone without the staff's involvement to at least some degree. Eventually, moot agreed and gave /mlp/ a janitor. He was later nicknamed 'Scruffy.' Though he does his job when he's awake, he has been heavily criticized for deleting threads that didn't warrant deletion, many included the contradiction between the "no anthros" rule and Equestria Girls content. Janitor Uncoverings On July 31, a screencap of the janitor board was leaked on /sp/ by someone claiming to be a mod going by the trip, , acknowledging the fact that he would be fired for doing so. He was later fired and permabanned from the site. On the leaked screencap was a janitor claiming ID to posts on /q/ that appeared to be a mentality of condescending free-reign. The screencaps are likely real, as they all have been blacklisted by the MD5, and the link to Spooky's sportschan thread is now a banned URL. The Shitpost "Illuminatti" It would often be the case of which /b/-tards would come to raid /mlp/, believing that the board was the source of where ponies are being posted on /b/. In response, it has been confirmed by moot in an IP experiment that in a period of three days, 91% of all /mlp/ users had not posted anywhere outside the premise of their home board at all. Though on November 9, one shitposter from /q/ that spammed a complaint thread with ponies linked a thread to a site that required a username/password to enter. /q/ users quickly took it to /g/ for more experienced coders to view. They eventually found the password without the need to exploit a vulnerability, as it was being freely passed around other posters. With concern to /mlp/ in response to this discovery, it had become less common the misconception that they were involved with the shitposting trolls outside of the board. Board Characters /mlp/ had developed an array of OC's that have commonly been associated with the board culture. Ponigg is simply a joke OC created in the first month of /mlp/'s existence, which is basically surrounding every exaggerated black stereotype formed into a pony. Inevitably, Ponigg has not been involved in any serious artwork. Tracy Cage is a sky blue pony bearing a cutie mark of Nicholas Cage's face. Her rise in popularity was entirely unintentional as the original thread was simply an input thread on one guy's OC posted in April 2012. Tracy is depicted as dark and edgy, yet not eerie nor overly gruesome. Later on, Tracy's legacy would be on the hands of one dedicated anonymous drawfriend whom produced massive amounts of content of Tracy and has gotten much praise for it. The Milkmare of Trottingham was initially a drawfriend's OC from tumblr that garnered a massive following at the spread on /mlp/ in November 2012. The "milkmare," a pony with breasts on its crotch area, evolved into a long-running series of vector art and questionable greentext stories. Though Milky Way is more than often associated with a fetish, it quickly grew in popularity enough to achieve "General" status. When it involves SFW content, it's usually for the humor value. At the ban storm of /mlp/, the long-running general's community voted to move to MLPchan. They currently can be found on /anon/ and are still very active, however /mlp/ anons have no intentions of abandoning the OC. While attempting to start a stand-alone Milky Way General is now considered a bannable offense, posting out-of-context material often jumps the radar, and if anything, will not result in a ban. Princess Animatia Erroria is technically a canon show character that appeared in Lesson Zero with an animation error that depicted her as an Alicorn filly. About a year and a half after the episode's airing, a thread was created on /mlp/ with a screencap of the error, titled "What should we call her?" After a consensus involving convenient post numbers with repeating digits, the name "Princess Erroria" was voted to the placeholder title on the MLP wiki via Reddit. Massive amounts of artwork were immediately created at the growing popularity of this OC, often associated with a Pokemon Slowpoke, cracking the joke that it's been almost two seasons since her debut. Though the creation of the OC comes off as "forced" by some regulars there, Erroria follows a legacy much similar to Yotsuba, with most fan labor being strictly safe for work. However, the strict SFW assertion has left much of /mlp/ with a distaste in the newly formed Erroia following. Safe Haven is an OC that was popularized in a lucid dream thread on /mlp/ that evolved into a chronicle of stories. The legend of the story is that Safe Haven will save you from nightmares. The character was colorized and drawn by the same anon to initially experience the dream. Other people outside the board, including Fenolio (Ponychan's !!ShiningArmor admin) claim to have experienced the outcome of a similar dream. Ongoing Drama The purpose of this article's section is simply to acknowledge the existence of the drama, and by no means is it to dispute the motives nor the intents of the people subject to it, because otherwise, it would not be very difficult to resolve the drama that propels its existence. *Purple Tinker, whom was involved in early Pony-related conventions, has been a primary subject of convention staff drama that found its way on /mlp/ after a Bronycon Staff Member allegedly leaked convention documents on the board that resulted in her resignation from conventions. *Mandopony, whom apparently Googled his name with "4chan" resulted in exaggerated accusations of /mlp/ claiming he was a "pedophile." His overreaction resulted a series of "pedo" jokes on the board, and after many attempts to put a closure to the miscommunication on /mlp/'s end, /mlp/ regulars have later responded with legitimate criticism that, by consensus of other discussion outlets, was handled poorly on MandoPony's end and has yet to be resolved. * Yelling At Cats-MictheMicrophone drama was induced in Bronycon 2012 after Mic made multiple assertions about "natural talent" during an onstage interview that came off as downright condescending. Yelling at Cats promised /mlp/ that he would call him out at Everfree Northwest, but only found himself in greater drama when it was revealed that he was responsible for the many delays and complications with their stage setup, and the fiasco quieted after the closure of that convention. *Las Pegasus Unicon, one of the most catastrophic failures in the history of conventions, was met with an investigation on /mlp/ to find more details on Sandi Haas, the founder of the convention that fled when the hotel foreclosed it due to the glaring amounts of debt that they feared would never be paid off. Many media outlets, including Derpy Hooves News, had given the investigators on /mlp/ some positive attention for their concern. Most Reposted Images #MLPG Marker - this image redirects the archive and is mandatory for every MLPG thread #IWTCIRD - Stretching Rainbow Dash #"ur a faget" ''(daily reminder from /v/) '' #Lyra making chocolate pudding at 4 am #Dubs guy List of Archives #Chanarchive - unfortunately, due to server complications, this site is usually down now. #Foolz - Technically they've been archving the entirety /mlp/ aside from full images, but due to limits of CPU usage, they choose to keep this archive private for now. #Octabooru - A small booru with an /mlp/ archiving system. The purpose of this archive is merely a request system, though they archive full images when submitted. #Heinessen - A public, complete thumbnail archive that dates back to August 2012. This is by far, the most popular archive of /mlp/. #413chan - A full image MD5 locator archive, intended for archiving MLPG threads only. Category:4chan Category:Imageboards